2020 has been a challenging year for businesses large and small as COVID across Australia and Victoria in particular has cause a lot of retail to close.

In conjunction with these challenges, and as employees from large corporations were stood down or let go, we have seen a number of Australians turning to starting their own small business as a source of income.

We have conducted a deep dive into our first party audience network to investigate the key themes and interests of our audiences.

business words

Interest Cloud: Small business owners are actively researching franchises and business services

Google Trends are showing moderately higher levels of engagement in recent months after a peak at the end of financial year in June.

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Interest Cloud:Search trends for small business over time

Taking a macro look at economic sentiment we have seen the National Australia Bank’s Business Confidence index tracking higher since the low in March 2020, as the economy opens up.

While most sectors saw an uptick in sentiment, notable Business & Property services were flat along with Financial Services.

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Audience trend by category: Since July we have seen an increase in audiences researching small business while savings and property come under pressure

Actionable Insights

Audience360 have an exclusive partnership with BusinessView enabling us to reach fully qualified business owners and business people looking for acquisitions.

As the economy begins to open up we see an increasing opportunity for business services providers, finance and insurance companies to reach audiences with relevant and engaging messaging. In addition to our traditional Tradies segments we are able to deep dive into areas of professional services to give clients the opportunity to market their most relevant products.

Analysis of our first party data shows an overall reduced engagement with business owners Year on Year however during this time as the economy reopens, our audience is highly engaged actively researching products and services.

Top Small Business Trends

  1. Remote work: the new normal
  2. Businesses embrace the gig economy
  3. Bots to the rescue 
  4. Emphasis on personalized customer service
  5. Businesses prioritize employee wellness  
  6. Small businesses ramp up digital marketing 
  7. User reviews will be king
  8. Voice: the way forward 
  9. Big data for small businesses 
  10. The launch of 5G

Source: https://www.freshworks.com/

By interrogating the data at a category and geographical level we are able to deliver strategic results as business owners and operators return to market seeking business products and services. Talk to Audience360 today about reaching the most engaged business owners and how the trends in our data can help build your marketing strategy!